Turning a Photograph into Watercolor painting - Learn to paint from reference images (Step by step) | Zaneena Nabeel | Skillshare
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Turning a Photograph into Watercolor painting - Learn to paint from reference images (Step by step)

teacher avatar Zaneena Nabeel, Top Teacher | Artist

Watch this class and thousands more

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Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Watch this class and thousands more

Get unlimited access to every class
Taught by industry leaders & working professionals
Topics include illustration, design, photography, and more

Lessons in This Class

    • 1.

      Welcome to my Class

      1:40

    • 2.

      Art Supplies

      2:34

    • 3.

      Studying the Photographs

      1:27

    • 4.

      Choosing the Colors

      5:10

    • 5.

      Painting 1 Part 1

      11:15

    • 6.

      Painting 1 Part 2

      7:32

    • 7.

      Painting 2 Part 1

      7:47

    • 8.

      Painting 2 Part 2

      9:25

    • 9.

      Thank you for watching

      1:10

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About This Class

Everyone loves to gaze at the stars, what about creating your own dreamy imaginative starry night using watercolors! 

In this class you’ll learn my process for painting a multi-colored vibrant starry night using watercolors which are inspired by photographs. By the end of the class you will be confident to recreate any photograph into watercolour painting. Each and every material will specified for everyone to follow, the class will be suitable for beginner and a professional. 

Join me to create your own AURORA!

If you like this class, please leave a review that will help this class reach more students.

Happy Painting

Z :) 

Meet Your Teacher

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Zaneena Nabeel

Top Teacher | Artist

Top Teacher

LINK TO THE CLASS - 30 Day Watercolor Challenge : Learn to Paint 30 Easy Winter Landscapes

Experience the joy of painting winter watercolor landscapes in this 30-day challenge.

Each day, discover the beauty of new techniques, color combinations, and helpful tips in just 20-25 minutes. These projects are designed to easily fit into your busy schedule, so consider joining us if you have some time to spare :)

I believe that everyone can paint, and I am sure we have all had the desire to paint something at one time or another. Painting has a healing, calming and transformative effect on us. It's less about the end result and more about the process and experience. If you have always wanted to paint, or if you'd like to start a creative routine, join me on this 30... See full profile

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Transcripts

1. Welcome to my Class: Hello, everyone. My some sonny. Don't be. Have you ever got inspired by a photograph and thought off painting it? If so, this glasses for you in this class, I'm gonna take you through a very interesting process off painting a photograph, step by step. We'll be starting the photograph in detail. And I'm gonna teach you how to choose the colors which are kind of similar to one in the photograph. We will also go through all the techniques that you require to paint these two photographs . By the end of the class, you all will be confident in painting any photograph off your choice. Okay, So without any for the do, let's get started. 2. Art Supplies: uh huh. In decision. I'm going to talk about all the supply study will need throughout this class. It is absolutely okay. If you don't have the exact same material that I'm using, you can go with any of the brand. But you have on any shades. It's kind of similar. Starting with a paint. I'm gonna use video sheets from the brand sent earlier. And artists. I'll be talking about the shades and detail than we want to the next station. Next on to the watercolor paper. I'm gonna use my arches. Rough paper, which is 300 grandpa meter square and 1:40 a.m. B. And this is 100% quarter critical. A paper You can go, but any of the brand, which is a minimum of 300 grandpa meter square. So these are the three bridges that I will be using throughout this class. This is suitable. Blackwell would brush size number 12 on Princeton irritates size number six, which is a round brush on my Princeton light wash brush. You will need a mixing palette to mix in our new colors. So this one has a very basic plastic pallet. You can go with any of the ones which you have. You will need two jars of water. One has to stay clean and the other one is the wash of the pain from your brush to create the stars. I'm gonna use my white wash. By royal talents, you can go with any of divide crash pain to have. And if you don't have one, you could go with your white, a click or even your whitewater Clever work. Last but not the least. You'll also need a pencil, a masking tape on eraser and a people total So that summarize all the material statue would require in this class gravel the materials and trying me in my next video. 3. Studying the Photographs: I hope you all have your materials study. Let's have a quick look through the photographs that were gonna pay in two days. Okay, so those are the two photographs which will be recreating as watercolor paintings are. Our first step is to identify the colors which are kind of similar to one and photographed . You could see the 1st 1 how it is coming from a doctor tune to read on toe, Ally to green. On 2nd 1 you could see it is a play off blue on green. I'm very sure by seeing those photographs you already have some idea off the colors which will be using in this class. So I have a juicing the colors by trial and error, and these are all of them. We'll be talking about these shades and details in our next session while we do the calo story. 4. Choosing the Colors: in decision will be looking into the colors that we'll be using into these glass. So starting with this particular photograph, you could see though doctors to value on the top. And I'm going with integral for the darkest value on for the reddish color. I'm going with Carmine after the red, you could see how it is going into the yellow on a neon green. So degree this greenish band I'm gonna go What? My lemon yellow on a bit of a light cream. It is actually a neon green which you see in the photograph to create a neon green I'm gonna add on a bit off lemony yellow to light cream and that will give me a sort off culo, which you see in the photograph for the bottom area to create the mountain. I'm gonna go with my black. So this is every black here. Oh, okay. So those other colors, I drive my maximum to go with the basic shades which are available with most off you rather than complicating it. So let's quickly spats the amount that is indigo. What? I'm trying. If you don't have integral, you could add a little off pains great to your pressure in blue, but you all might have. Or if you don't have a paint, agree you can add a little off black like very little that is Carmine. You could also use crimson if you don't have Carmine. Uh huh. Now onto lemon yellow on. After that, I'll go with my night cream. So remember to create my neon green I've really mixing in a bittles light green to lemon yellow. If you have known Green, you could directly go in with that now on to the final shed. So I will be using black to pain that mountain and those little buying trees you see in the photograph on That's it. So, daughter, close which we will require for this painting all right onto the 2nd 1 So to create this particular painting, you will be needing a blue on a green. I'm going with my son Lear Blue. You could go with any blew off your child's. You could go with ultra marine, blue, Prussian blue, royal blue or any blue. But you have got for the green on again, going with my artists Allied cream. When you come down closer to the pine trees. You could see the researcher yellowish green. So I'm gonna use a little off lemon yellow where you could see that yellowish green happening To draw the pine trees, I will be using black. So to create the stars for both the painting, you will also require a white quash or right click or by torta color, as I mentioned in our art supplies Ishan. Now let's watch out these colors. All right? Uh huh. I'm starting with my similar blue. You can use any off the bright blue, but you have got It doesn't necessarily need to be the same blue that I'm using. Now I'm going with my light green now onto Lemony alone on finally alcohol with black, which, as a shade we will be using to detail the pine trees. All right, so we discussed all the shades which we require in this class. Grab the shades and join me in my next video 5. Painting 1 Part 1: All right. So let's speaking with our first painting, I am started withdrawing an outline of the mountain so this can be modified Lato. When be detailed, the mountains. I'm doing it so that I have an idea about where my green band needs to be. We will be doing overtone vet sky. I'm starting with applying even coat of water onto the paper. I am leaving the mountain area. Lassiter's I'm just applying my water on the sky aan obvious. Make sure you have properly to Antonio paper to get a clean line, because when we work on vet on vet as if you're using a lot of water that can lose in the group. So just give around around to paper to make sure those are properly taped. I'm going to begin with adding my integral, amusing my Princeton Wash preshow on. I'm applying the plane from left to right on a straight manner. On the photograph, you could see they have intercooled almost a middle off the sky, so I'm gonna follow the same on. I'm taking my integral to this line. So this is my darkest value among the shades I choose, and I applied it in their darkest value possible over to Carmine. Now I'm loading my brush with Carmine on adding that in and I'm blending into Go and Carmine, where those two are meeting it is always better to use a watercolor paper off minimum 300 GSM for your political project. So that will give a significant difference for your project because he could see my water hasn't dried. My background is still wet, and that is helping me plan to my close more evenly. I added more Carmine to get a brighter right there. Now I'm going with lemon yellow. Uh, Captain Banda's lemon yellow now blend the carmine and lemon yellow together. Okay, so those three shades has nicely blended together. Now I'm gonna go with my light green, as I mentioned earlier to create my neon green and mixing in ah, little off light cream to lemon yellow so more lemon yellow and little light cream. So that is a proportion you have to follow to quit this particular cream that you see here now blend in the light green to the lemon yellow. Don't worry. If you missed the outline of the mountain, we'll be coming back with black to detail that. So that time we can clean all those inches. I'm adding a letter more lemon yellow to get that vibrant yellow band. So all shades are kind off nicely blended together. The next is a tricky one. We're gonna create the effect off the northern lights. For that I have my brush with no paint on it. You can see my background is still a little bit. So this exercise, what we gonna do now should be done when your background as wet. I'm gonna lift my brush in an upward motion taking the yellow to the red. Or you could do the other way. Aspell taking the blue to the right. But then always remember if you're doing an upward motion, Once you lift your brush to the top, clean your brush properly and make sure there's no paint on your brush and come back and do the same. I'm gonna add in a little off, really low to where are how my yellow band as my yellow has slightly tried. So once I apply a little more yellow, too This particular area it kind of make it easy. When I left the paint always always always remember to clean your brush. When you left a yellow up the second time when you left the yellow to the red, you would have touched the blue and there would be a little of blue card mixed onto your brush. So when you do the same thing the second time without cleaning your brush, there are chances of blue getting mixed with the yellow. So to avoid that, all these make sure you clean your brush. I'm repeating the same exercise off lifting the yellow up. I'm just cleaning my inches with Interco as it was. No talking with dentures. Now I'm going with the reverse. I'm lifting down the blue to the red. Now I'm trying to lift a little off green to the yellow Vespa. So what kind of practice bees on do this lifting exercise If it's new to you now, I'm gonna add in some white at this particular idea. Load your brush with very little of white watercolor on. Lift that up. I'm adding the white one more time and I'll blend that into the background. So after every left, I'm cleaning my brush lifting, cleaning, lifting again, cleaning, lifting, cleaning Do remember to clean your brush. Otherwise it will become a mess because if they're darker, colors get mixed onto the yellow and the green. It is so difficult to get it back. Repeat this exercise until you are happy with the result. So now I loaded little more green onto my brush, and I'm lifting that up as the intensity of the yellow card Little reduced. I'm gonna add in a little more yellow at this area to make it a bit more vibrant. I have the spots off all the clothes that I own, and when I buy a new color, I always remembered to add that color in my sketchbook. So by this way, whenever I have a photograph in my hand, it is kind of easy for me to try and see which Carlos go spell. So if you practice the same thing, it is kind of easy. When you have a photograph in your hand, you can actually try on. Match it with the colors, which you have, and see which one will work better. You can also follow the online tutorials on other amazing skin, share classes on mixing colors and create to your own color palette. All these will help you understand the color in the photograph better and how you can achieve that by mixing colors. I added some more green to the boredom, and I'm lifting that up to the yellow. My red and yellow has more or less tried, so I'm not lifting the green beyond the yellow. If I lift a green into the blue, even if the yellow is tried it kinds off. Give me that look as if it was a blender, so I don't love the green beyond the A look. Okay, so that's of the sky. Now let's go ahead and splatter some stars and add in the mountains. 6. Painting 1 Part 2: all dried, so we have ever skied Ready. Now I'm gonna splatter some stars. And after that, I'm gonna add in some mountain on one or two pine trees on. But that will be finishing a painting to split the stars. Amusing. My white, quashed by Royal, tells you could go with your bite, a click or whitewater color. So I'm taking a little on the leg and adding in a few drops of water. So the consistency has to be a little thicker to get with tiny stars. Now, with another British, I'm tapping on it gently. I'm not so happy with those bigger ones, which I carded. Never mind. I'm going in with one more round. I made my paint but more thicker to get tiny once. See now how I'm getting those tiny ones earlier. The consistency was but loose. That's why I got that bigger ones. Okay. Looks like I have got enough off stars there. Now I'm gonna go ahead and paying the mountain. I'm using black to paint the mountain. So drawing an irregular line and fill in the entire area but black, just like have you see in the photograph go with an irregular profile that makes it look more natural. I still remember how I used to draw those three involved would be as the mountains it was never do are never for it was always three. I still have a collection off all those pictures with I drew when I was really young. Sometimes I really wonder the week I prove gets from Todd Tothis artists always Oh, profession, our passion, which you can follow that any age never hold back. When you get a chance to learn something new, you never know when your passion will become your profession. Okay, Coming back to the painting I draw on outline. Now I'm gonna fill in the entire idea in black. - Okay , so I have done filling in the profile off the mountain. No, I'm gonna go in and add one or two pine trees. Just ask, you see in this photograph, like one or two or three. So these are very tiny little pine trees. It doesn't need to be like, well, detail. You can use a retailing brush to draw your pine trees. I'm using my purse. Turn heritage size number six fresh. So this brush comes back 12 Buddy nice point before I move into the pine tree scientist and US dollar moment in here because I didn't like the way my mountain profilers, So I'm just adding in a taller one there. All right, that looks better. Now I'm gonna add in the pine trees, um, drawing a line, a thin line. Now I'm feeling that. But like smaller, smaller lines, actors like I'm scribbling on that line. You could see I'm not putting a lot off a foot on it, as those are very far from you. And it doesn't need to be like to detailed. Don't have too much of pine trees. Give more importance to the profile of the mountain. You could add in a maximum off three or four. All right. Oh, well, that's it. So we have finished our painting. Now I'm gonna go ahead and peel off the masking tape. Other than those two big stars, I'm happy with the rest off it. No mind. In my previous classes, I talk about the tips on being the mosque ing tape. So if you want to know more about that, you could check my previous classes. I caught three clean lines. One more to go on. That also looks fine. Andi, that's it. We have finished painting this dreamy night sky. Now I have a much simpler one coming in my next to 7. Painting 2 Part 1: Okay, let's begin our second painting. This one is a play off blue on green mehndi. I have already taped down my paper onto the base. I'm gonna go, but adding a but coat of water onto the paper. Firstly, I'm gonna go into the darkest value, which is the blue in this case. And I am using my silver blackfella brush number 12 to adding the color Amusing similiar blue. You can go with any of the bright blue which you have got. It doesn't necessarily need to be the same color that I'm using. There is no order and randomly filling in the blue at the EADiaz spare you see in the photograph. I'm going in with a bit more brighter blue. The one which I apply looks but lighter to me. So what? Tikolo always fade a little bit than the color where you see on your picture while painting . Once it tries, it always go to one step down and the value off the colors. So I'm directly adding in the brighter color possible because I don't want to come back with a different layer on the top to paint this guy. I'm taking my brush and an up and down motion. So that is the way the sky appear on the photograph. So I'm trying to resemble that on my painting. Now I'm switching to green on with the same brush moment, applying baton so even while blending the colors, used that up and down movement. Now I'm adding him some lemon yellow to make the green little lighter and vibrant coming towards the right. I'm deliberately leaving a little off white space. This will add more glued to the sky and make it look betrayal a stick. Now I'm adding in some more Darko brew on the top on the same exercise. Forget it on our first painting and lifting those paint down into the green like I'm adding in some taco blue towards this area to make it look like the photograph. I'm trying to blend that into the green so I actually must to get that blue area there. When you are painting, you could directly go in with that blue ups and down. Now I'm repeating the same exercise beated and our first painting. I'm using my Princeton Wash barrage to lift the paint up. I'm loading my brush with some light to green. And along with that, I'm lifting the paint up. I'm lifting the plane from the bottom and almost touching the blue on cleaning my brush and repeating the same thing over again and again, he could see how beautifully that Skye is taking shape. Oh, I'm gonna go with the opposite motion. I'm lifting down the blue to the green. Remember to clean your brush after every moment With that, we have finished painting over sky. Now I'm gonna add in this little moon towards the right, as you see in the photograph, amusing my white water cooler and adding in a small circle to resemble the moon. Next I'm gonna splatter some stars Amusing my white wash. All right, I have splatter enough of stars I'm gonna clean in that cluster of stars with my tissue paper and fill in that gap would but more blue. So making mistakes are OK, You could see him and I make mistakes That's absolutely OK to make mistakes. And if you know to clean them, there's no worry at all to make it look OK. I'm filling in little off blue on top of that to hide the mistake I'm adding, you know, star All right. That the sky. Now let's go ahead and add the pine trees and finish the painting. 8. Painting 2 Part 2: no. All right, we have the sky ready. Now. I'm gonna teach you how to do these buying trees. In this photograph, I'm starting with drawing a line which is thin at the top and thicker at the bottom. You can see how the spine tree has more leaves at the top, and it's empty when it comes to the bottom. So I'm gonna try and do the similar thing to this one. I'm making it more thicker at the bottom. I'm adding tiny lines and a crisscross manner, and along with that, to make though three look more din's. I'm moving my brush and now Percy manner and creating some dots on it. This will give you a buddy dense foliage effect you could see and randomly moving my brush in a press e manner on scribbling in and adding in the details. I'm repeating the same scribbling moment, and when I come down putting some empty branches on leaving the tall tree trunk acid ists you can see I have literally scribbled in the for the edge of the pine trees. No. Now let's try under the one with the shorter tree trunk and a dense foliage. I'm against grumbling to get a dense effect. But the same technique. I'll be drawing my pine trees on all main painting at different heights. I will quickly go in and add the pine trees along the base. This will take a bit off a time. I have a test. A copy off the photographs in the project description. You can download them on. Have a copy value paint to make it exactly look like the photograph. Add in as many trees as they want on. Always believer, different heights. - Liza to want to be tried. Now I'm adding some smaller ones in between the big trees. No. - Now I'm going with the biggest tree in the middle. I'm taking the tree trunk till the top as to see in the photograph, and I'm repeating the same scribbling exercise to create the folly edge now could detail in the pine trees. But those crudely moment are a bit more concentration to this one, as this is the biggest and tallest aiming the cluster. Make it more than so while you come down. - No , - um , adding in a little off land award to the right side. I'm just filling in that line with black. I'm only doing this on the right side, continuing with my pine trees, and I'm adding the remaining off the area. But more pine trees. I got bored. I'm stopping it there. If you want, you can continue with adding more pine trees. Or if you feel like you have garden off, you can stop just like me. I'm gonna quickly bill off the masking tape and show you the final product. Always remember to be love your masking tape at an angle. This will prevent your people from tearing off. No, All dried. So we have finished painting over 2nd 1 9. Thank you for watching: way. Okay, so we made it to the end. I hope you all enjoyed painting with me. Please share your class project in the project. Calorie. I would love to see them re greeting a photograph as a watercolor painting. Isn't that difficult? Right? So that was the message I want to pass on with this class. Give it to try. Challenge yourself on play with watercolor. I'm very sure you cannot enjoy it. No, thank you for watching and happy painting by.